The SNP's nurse attack has exposed the nasty underbelly of nationalism

Members of the SNP have attempted to smear a nurse that criticised Nicola Sturgeon during the Scottish Leaders' debate Credit:
Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Misogyny is rarely far off when it comes to the heat of a political campaign. Last year, in the middle of the EU referendum, I was presenting the case for a Leave vote on a live radio show in Glasgow when one of the members of the public audience offered what he probably imagined was a helpful contribution.

The substance of the question was lost on his listeners even at the time because he chose, bizarrely, to launch an ad hominem attack on Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, referring to her as “Mrs Murrell”. To the uninitiated, this was a reference – presumably intended to be a pejorative one – to Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, the chief executive of the SNP. No one in the venue had the...